ARF Demands Immediate Audit of Genocide Settlement Accounts

YEREVAN—The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Central Political Council (Armenian Cause) issued a declaration calling on attorneys involved in cases related to Genocide survivor settlements to immediately submit all records to an independent audit.

The declaration comes a week after attorneys Mark Geragos and Brian Kabateck filed a lawsuit if Los Angeles against their one-time partner Vartkes Yeghiayan alleging fraud in the appropriation of funds of Genocide lawsuit settlements.

Below is the declaration:

In recent days, news that two of the attorneys of the Genocide survivor insurance settlement case are accusing their co-counsel of defrauding the community by diverting settlement funds meant for Armenian national and community organizations, has caused much concern for Armenians.

Regardless of whether these accusations prove to be true, they do have the potential to shake the trust of our people concerning national issues, despite the fact that the lawsuits in question stemmed from personal interests and were initiated and led by individual attorneys.

We cannot ignore these allegations: a) because they are being made by individuals who have been in a position of knowledge; b) because the allegations pertain to the defrauding of resources, which are the property of our people as a whole and national organizations specifically.

In order to maintain –as much as possible– the trust of the Armenian people intact, we demand that the sides, independent of the court proceedings, voluntarily and immediately submit the settlement disbursements to a full and complete independent professional audit, and inform the Armenian people of the results. The process should have been carried out with such transparency from the very beginning. Now it has become urgent and critical.

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4 Comments

With regard to the AXA Insurance Case, I was a claimant in the case as both my maternal grandfather, Mihrtad Dickranian, and my paternal grandfather, Nishan Paparian, were AXA policy holders. My simple request for an explanation as to what happened to my family’s claim went unanswered. I was informed that the AXA settlement account was in the control of Geragos and Kabateck to the exclusion of Yeghiayan. My request for an accounting went all the way up to the California Supreme Court in Case No. S186168 and is a matter of public record. Nevertheless, Geragos and Kabateck steadfastly refused to not only answer any questions regarding my family’s claim they also persisted in their stubborn refusal to provide an accounting of the settlement funds. Perhaps the ARF Central Political Council will be more successful.

This is the problem when we Armenians do not have a central body or organization that is responsible for or coordinates our actions as a group in any legal or political issues concerning us as an entity. We are a JOKE. When our most important issue, the genocide, is treated this way, with no grand plan or a road map, when our so called leaders are more interested in petty personal issues and egocentric posturing then, a couple of lawyers try to do what they can for their ego or personal gain. I would be laughing with our Turkish neighbors but the pain inside is too much to ignore.
If today Turkey says OK, I will give you Armenians whatever you want, we would be lost beyond belief. We do not even know what we want. We do not know who will decide on our part what we want. We would start fighting each other while a group of smart lawyers will make a deal behind our back, settle the issue and will not even tell us what the settlement was.
The blame is on our so called leaders and political organizations. They have not grown up yet and are an immature group of people who are hurting our cause more than our enemies. Pathetic Diaspora, pathetic Armenia. Make sure you leaders are preparing your annual speeches for the fast approaching April 24.

Thank you so much Hutch, you are absolutely right. We are not only immature,like Hrant Dink once had mentioned, we are sick. He was asking “who is going to treat us?” I think first of all we need to accept that we are sick.We have heavy resentments,anger,and not being able to find a right way to handle these problems made us really sick. Besides, not having any support from our government, we expect that diaspora can handle this situation with its poor organisations. We need new leaders, and new strategies for our problems. We know what happened 95 years ago, we need to move on.We are not baggers.